Samantha - Il sorriso della vita

This wasn't a bad movie, and a premise I've yet to see. It's about a young lady who finds out on her 21st Birthday (I might be wrong on the age) that she is adopted. The bulk of the film deals with her multiple identity crisis's that may have been the inspiration for the South Park episode in which Cartman goes through the same situation in finding out who his father is. There isn't much of a flowing story line, but the characters are interesting, and develop well throughout the film. I wouldn't nominate it for an oscar or anything, but it's hardly a bad film. If you see it's coming on television, check it out, or maybe even rent it. You won't feel ripped off.

Samantha is a film about an exceptionally talented violinist (Martha Plimpton) who, on her 21st birthday, discovers that her parents did not give birth to her but rather found her on their doorsteps. Feeling that she has lost her true identity because she has been living a lie she goes in search of her birth parents driving everyone crazy including her best friend Henry (Dermot Mulroney) who she is not so secretly in love with and alienating her violin instructor not to mention the parents she has known her whole life. I thought this was a fun movie even though Samantha was a maniac. I'm still in awe that Dermot Mulroney plays the cello in real life!

Martha Plimpton has done some prestigious movies, working with River Phoenix and Harrison Ford, but she was never able to expand her limited, tomboyish appeal into the same class as, say, Molly Ringwald. This film, which was barely released, is just an extension of her late '80s/early '90s attempts to find a screen-persona which was identifiable to moviegoers, and it represents another failure. Plimpton plays a troubled young woman who finds out on her 21st birthday that she was adopted and--more than that--was actually abandoned as an infant on her parents' doorstep! She sets out to find her biological mother and father, but we are given no clue as to why she'd want to (would simple curiosity give her this much determination?). Unattractive material given sitcom handling; it starts off on the wrong foot and never recovers. Plimpton gives a sour, surly performance, but Hector Elizondo and Mary Kay Place are fine as her adoptive parents. *1/2 from ****

I caught this movie on TV and was surprised by its seinfeld like comedy. Watch it if you get a chance, but don't go out of the way to rent it.

I caught this little gem on HBO once, and being an instrumentalist, was impressed with how well Dermot Mulroney seemed to handle the cello. Often, actors handle an instrument as if they've never touched one before (see Richard Dreyfuss in "The Competition". . .he played the piano as if it was going to BITE him.)

I assumed that Mulroney actually DID play, and I was right. In Melissa Etheridge's new book, there is a photo of Dermot at the cello. . .he played on a cut from one of her albums.

Do you know of other stars that play instruments? Here are some that I know of. . .

Phyllis Diller (Piano) Dudley Moore (Piano and Organ) Kaye Ballard (Flute) Lori Singer (Cello) Peter Weller (Flugelhorn) Warren Beatty (Piano) Clint Eastwood (Piano)

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